Sharanagati

“Glory to the all-merciful Rādhā and Madana–mohana! I am lame and ill–advised, yet They are my directors, and Their lotus feet are everything to me. In a temple of jewels in Vṛndāvana, underneath a desire tree, Śrī Śrī Rādhā–Govinda, served by Their most confidential associates, sit upon an effulgent throne. I offer my humble obeisances unto Them. May Gopīnāthajī, who attracts all the gopīs with the song of His flute and who has begun the most melodious rāsa dance on the bank of the Yamunā in Vaḿśīvaṭa, be merciful upon us.”[1]

Here Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami prays to the three main deities of Vrindavana – Madana-mohan, Govinda and Gopinath.

Sanatana Goswami established the worship of Madan-mohan and Madan-mohan represents the attractive feature of Krishna. He will capture your heart. Therefore Sanatana Goswami is also the protector of all those, who want to take shelter, who are searching for shelter. And he is the emblematic figure of diksha-guru. Because diksha means you achieve your shelter. So all those who are searching for their shelter or a spiritual guide should pray to Sanatana Goswami and Madana-mohan. And Sanatana Goswami was giving all the practical duties, dos and don’ts of the spiritual progress in order to help us achieve that shelter.

The second person is Rupa Goswami and he established the worship of Govinda. You know that the best pronunciation of Krishna’s name is Govinda. Because He makes you happy, satisfies your heart and soul. Rupa Goswami is the shiksha-guru acharya, he is the shelter of the instructing masters. So those who need instructions they should pray to Rupa Goswami and they will get instructions. Therefore he is considered the shastra-guru of the whole sampradaya.

And finally the third aspect of Krishna-lila is Gopinath, the Lord of the gopis and this ideal is personified by Raghunath das Goswami. We can say that he is the shelter of the rasa-guru. And in his books he describes the topmost aspects of lilas. His major composition is “Vilapa-kusumanjali”; that means “A bouquet of lamentation” –some little drops are added to the beauty of collection of flowers. So if we are searching for the bitter-sweet taste, then we should go to Him.

Of course it does not mean that Sanatana or Rupa Goswami has given less, that they give only sweet, too sweet and better we go to Raghunath das to get some little drops of bitterness, because this is only for the qualified tasters of rasa; neophytes can taste the sweetness, the more elevated can taste the bitterness… No. They all serve you. They all serve us. They help us understand a little bit this spiritual science from the abc to xyz. Because this is a long path and we need many, many instructions, even we need many instructors. And as we agreed, in the one we meet the many, and in the many we meet the one. In one guru you meet many instructors and in the many instructors you will find the same one guru.